Guardian of the People
by girl1213
Summary: Elisa knew what she was, yet she didn't. All she knew was she was a protector, but she did not understand why. Until she found them...the gargoyles from the past.
1. Chapter 1

A/N:

Takes place in an "What-if" Alternate Universe. This has something that's been sitting around in my head for years. Like fifteen plus years actually. Gargoyles was one of my favorite cartoons growing up in the 90s, even after all these years it still has a place in my heart. I hope this story does well by it at least. I hope you enjoy and will comment to share your thoughts.

* * *

**The Only One?**

It sounded like thunder.

But where thunder could be heard, lightning should be accompanying it. This storm had no lightning.

Thunder without lightning is no storm at all.

Even if there was lightning, lightning was not red.

Elisa knew this. She could feel it within the very bones of her body.

She never could explain how she knew what was never learned from being taught. When it came to the very earth itself, its nature, its weather, she just knew things. Perhaps it was a part of whatever she was.

Peter, her adoptive father, a human man, once told her that she was a gargoyle, but he could not explain to her what a gargoyle was, only that he once thought they were myths and legends used in scary stories until he saw her egg for the first time when he was a young boy in 1935. When she was in her twenties, but still in the mind and size of a preteenage human, Diane, her newly adoptive mother, showed her a book with pictures of gargoyles.

But those gargoyles were only architectural waterspouts shaped like bizarre creatures. According to that very book, their only function was to carry water away from the building that they were mounted on; otherwise they were just decorations, but in the medieval times, would have scared away non-existent forces of evil.

Elisa could see not true similarly between herself and those decorations. Where those decorations looked like strange creatures, she looked more human, especially in her face. It was very human looking even with the extra bone structure on her the ridge of her forehead and the tiny horns that came from it, but were often covered by her long blue tinted black hair. Her hands were very human looking, but only had four fingers. They were almost delicate in their structure but the fingertips were pointed, forming claws instead of fingernails. But it was her feet and ears that exceedingly proved she was not a slightly misshaped human.

She never could wear shoes, or even shocks. Her feet were too large and were double-jointed. Her ankles pointed outward instead of curving like a regular human foot. Her six toes, like her eight fingers, were pointed to form more claws. And her large ears looked more like the ears a bat rather than a human.

The only true similarities, in an appearance at least, with many of those architectural gargoyles were the wings and tail. Her leather-like wings where connected to her back and were structured like that of a bat, but she had an additional two "fingers" and as well as a "thumb" on both the wings. The inside of the wings' membranes was the color of dark maroon red on the inside, while the outside of the membranes was a deep black. Her tail was the same color as her skin, a deep tan that it was almost orange, but it was long and whip-like.

But the most major similarity, as well as the most major difference, between Elisa and the architectural gargoyles was that when the sun shined its light upon the earth, Elisa and the statues were both made out of stone. But when the sun retreated behind the line of the horizon, Elisa would become flesh, blood and bone. The statues remained stone.

There were no others like her.

Once there was, according to "Grandfather," Peter's father. Elissa had parents that were like her. Grandfather said they were known to the Hopi tribe as Aponivi, "The Wind Blows Down The Gap" and Hehewuti, "Warrior Mother Spirit." But they never called themselves that, thinking the names as "odd human labels" rather than actual names.

But her parents had sisters and brothers, as well as many mothers and fathers. And they too had many sisters and brothers and parents before them. Grandfather told her that this clan of gargoyles had protected the people for thousands of years, living in peace with one another, both sides teaching one another.

But then the Spanish came…

At first, the strangers were welcomed, but then in 1598, in a pueblo known today as the Acoma Pueblo, the Spanish Don known as Juan de Oñate had found out about the gargoyles living there. Out of fear, Oñate planned to destroy the gargoyles while they were in stone sleep. The Acoma overheard Oñate's plans and, in order to protect their gargoyle friends, they attacked first.

The ambush happened when eleven of Oñate's man entered the pueblo on a mission to kill any sleeping gargoyle they could find. Fortunately, before they could even get near the gargoyles, the Acoma attacked, killing all eleven men.

However, unknown to the Acoma at the time, one of the men was Oñate's own nephew.

Upon news of his nephew's death, the Spanish Don swore revenge on the Acoma people and their gargoyle protectors.

After many days of planning, Oñate had the village attack at sunrise. The Acoma fought bravely but, in the end, they fell. Acoma Pueblo was burned and over six hundred were killed and approximately five hundred others were imprisoned. With the attack successful, Oñate had the imprisoned watch helplessly as Oñate and his men smashed the gargoyle statues, killing the whole clan. Many of the Acoma who escaped the massacre fled to other villages, warning them of the danger.

For almost a hundred years, the tribes that refused Spanish rule tried their best to protect their gargoyle friends. But the Spanish were ruthless, knowing exactly when to attack. Thousands upon thousands of gargoyles were massacred, and due to the gargoyles' inability to breed quickly, they were rapidly dying out.

By the time relations improved, only a handful of gargoyles groups had survived. But they were not enough to either sustain or grow a population. With each new generation seeing fewer and fewer eggs, the gargoyles had to accept that their race was going extinct. Aponivi and Hehewuti were the last gargoyles of their reprehensive clans.

They did not try or even hope for a child, but somehow Hehewuti, who was very old for a gargoyle, became pregnant with Elisa. How this came to be, no one knew. Despite her ancient age, she successfully carried and laid Elisa's egg during the Spring Equinox of 1928.

But alas, Grandfather told her, Aponivi and Hehewuti would never see their daughter hatch. They were old, and Aponivi was growing gravely ill. Knowing this, Aponivi and Hehewuti gave their egg to Grandfather, knowing that he, his family and his tribesmen would keep her safe.

The last thing Hehewuti said to Grandfather was "I like Elisa. It's a beautiful human label."

They disappeared into the night, never to return. And Elisa, without her gargoyle parents to look up to, to learn from, hatched in 1938 on the day of Spring Equinox, surrounded by Hopi tribe people.

This year was 1994, Elisa was fixity-six years old, but she looked, acted and felt younger than what a human would feel if they were lucky to reach these years. She guessed that being a different species, she aged differently.

How long would she live?

Is it possible that she would live long enough to not just only see the deaths of her adoptive parents, but her adoptive siblings' deaths as well? Derek was only in his early twenties and Beth was nineteen. Elisa felt was, equivalently, only a little older than their ages.

There were so many unanswered questions; so many unknowns about herself.

She had no answers as to all the feelings and instincts she had.

Like how she knew that whatever was going on within or beyond the clouds that shielded the upper stories of the Eyrie Building, it was no thunderstorm. It was not natural.

It was strengthening the intense need to protect Manhattan, her city, her home, her protectorate…

Her duty.

The noise like thunder suddenly stopped.

Out from the clouds came, not rain, but stone and metal.

Elisa could only watch from her perch as the debris, no doubt pieces from the Eyrie Building rained down on the people and car below on the streets. Instinct was telling her to try to stop the fragments from harming her human charges. But rationality told her that she would only end up street pizza if she tried. Elisa was stronger than a human, but she was not that strong to break the descent of a few hundred pounds of rubble and survive.

Besides, it would also reveal herself; something she could not afford.

She could only watch as steel fell upon a taxi cab, impaling it to the ground. She considered it was only pure luck that the taxi driver and his passenger got out of the vehicle not even a second before the steel impaled the car.

The comforting sound of police sirens filled the streets, even as the thunder-like noises and the "red lightning" started up again from within the cloud cover.

Elisa scanned the newly arrived police officers and spotted a familiar face. She could see Officer Morgan among the officers trying to keep the scared and confused crowd away from the Eyrie building. Morgan was one of the few police officers who knew of her existence and she trusted him keep her existence a secret. In return he kept her informed of situations within the borough that she could not directly help out in without revealing herself to anyone with credibility. Criminals themselves had no credibility, but everyone else was an uncertainty.

Elisa turned on her communicator to Morgan's radio frequency. "Morgan! Maza! What's going on here?!"

From a hundred feet up, she watched Morgan grab his radio and almost shout into it to be heard over the noise of the crowd, "Got me, Maza! Must be one heck of a party up there!"

"Party" is not what Elisa would describe it, but there was no time to comment it. Three more thunderous booms and then more debris was falling onto the street and nearby buildings. Elisa dived to the left, throwing herself off the parapet she was perched upon and back onto the gravel roof of the building, as concrete debris fell on the spot where she just was only a second ago. More debris, small enough not to go through the roof, but large enough to badly injury her, continued to fall around her for a few seconds before the deadly shower ended. In her ear, she could still hear Morgan ordering the crowd to get back through the communicator.

Elisa shook off the intense feelings of fear and adrenaline off, willing herself to focus, placing a hand on a nearby large piece of debris that, actually surprisingly didn't go through the roof from its size. However, once her eyes refocused, she noticed something odd about it.

Four marks…

Four marks that she knew by just looking at them that them that they were not made by the concrete shattering off. No, these marks were dug into the concrete, and they were very close together.

Elisa moved her hand, placing the claw ends of her hands into it.

A near perfect fit.

"Claw marks?"

Another thunder-like noise went off above her. The female gargoyle looked up as she saw more debris falling toward her. This roof was no longer safe.

Without wasting time getting up, Elisa started running like a tiger on all fours, her body easily accommodating, heading toward the other side of the roof. Without hesitation, the deadly new wave falling around her, Elisa sprung onto what was left of the parapet and pushed off, opening her wings wide to catch the air current.

As she glided away to safety, it started to rain, but she did not notice it. For only one thought was on the centerfold of her mind as she looked back up at those clouds were the not-thunder could be heard and the red not-lightning could be seen within them.

"What could be strong enough to leave claw marks in solid stone?"

She could not know it then, but the search for an answer to this question would lead her to finding out what she had always wanted, but never hoped to have.

She was not alone.

* * *

Yes, this alternate universe is about Elisa being a gargoyle instead of a human. I've read similar stories like this but I couldn't find anyone trying it this way before. I hope I've created something new for you to enjoy, and I hope am I staying true to characters as much as I can.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Not a very long chapter, I know. But it does offer some more insight into Elisa's past.

* * *

Normally getting to the top of the Eyrie Building would be a cinch. The air currents around the world's largest skyscraper were always strong, and it would be easy to just use those currents to glide up to the top. But considering that she had heard advanced automatic weapons fire amongst the thunder-like noise she heard from the street, Elisa decided it would be safer to do an alternative route.

Climbing was not something she often did since she arrived in New York in 1960 at age twenty-two—a preteen in gargoyle standards—with her human father. But back in Arizona, Grandfather often took her to Humphreys Peak, the highest natural point in Arizona and a sacred and holy mountains sacred and holy mountain to the tribe. It was also the "birthplace" of the Gargoyle tribes that befriended the native tribes. Though Grandfather could not tell her much about her kind, he still wanted her to have some connection to them.

The Eyrie Building was no Humphreys Peak, but as Elisa climbed higher and higher up side of the building, she couldn't help but feel like the world's largest skyscraper might as well be a mountain. Not even four years ago, the lot that the skyscraper was built upon, housed a ten-story high office building. During the 80s, she had used its roof was a combination of a look-out point during the nights when she was patrolling the Central Park area, and roosting sanctuary when it was too close to sunrise to make it back to her loft in SoHo.

It had been a bad night when she had awoken from stone sleep to find her roosting site surrounded by demolition personal. She had been lucky that they had not made it to the roof yet during their final safety inspection; otherwise they would have found her hibernating self and would have proceed to load her into a haling ramp and transport truck.

Thankfully, the loss of that one look-out and sanctuary was not bad to Elisa. She had plenty of other sanctuaries within the city to roost in, and it was not like New York would be running out of buildings to preform look-out duty from.

Still it surprised her that the mile-high skyscraper took only a year to complete when it took the eight hundred seventy-one foot Bank of America Corporate Center, then the world's tallest building, two and half years. Upon its completion, Elisa finally asked Officer Morgan what the Eyrie Building was about.

The Eyrie Building, he told her, was the corporate headquarters of Xanatos Enterprise, a giant corporation created and run by David Xanatos, one of the richest men in the world. In the almost two years since the building's completion, Elisa never dared get near the massive sky scrapper until tonight. There was something about it and this human man, Zanatos, which whispered of danger and the need to exercise extreme caution.

More unexplainable Gargoyle instinct perhaps.

But now that feeling had subsided into a buzz in the back of her mind, distant but still there, as she climbed through the thinning cloud barrier that obscured the very top of the Eyrie Building.

* * *

On a side note: Not counting the 1,000 year sleep, Elisa is exactly the same age as Goliath since, according to GargWiki, he hatched in 938. This was done to make Elisa older then the Trio, who are the gargoyle equivalent of 18-year-old men. And I really didn't want to put Elisa through what Angela had to put up with those three, so I decided that Elisa should be their senior...less likely to treat her eagerly for courting.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Sorry for the long wait! Too much as happened at once in Real Life. Hope you enjoy.

* * *

The place smelled ancient; not as ancient as some of the Indian ruins she had been to as a child back in Arizona, but still the scent on the ancient stone blocks was similar. This castle she was in was a ruin, yet it was rebuilt it to its pristine condition, any ruin and decay that a thousand years of abandonment had caused to the structure was gone.

Xanatos certainly paid the right people for the right job when he purchased this castle from somewhere in Scotland to have it transported to New York. Not only had he succeeded in transporting and successfully reassemble the castle atop his tower, but if her sharp senses weren't deceiving her, he modernized it as well.

Xanatos was indeed as the humans say "filthy rich." Yet Elisa couldn't help but let a stray thought of wonder why he went through all this trouble for a Scottish ruin.

She pushed the thought aside. The castle itself didn't matter. What mattered is finding out what truly happened up here earlier tonight.

According to Detective Captain, Maria Chavez, a long-time friend and ally of Elisa's, all the city's news stations have reported that the commotion up here was caused by a newly installed power generator exploding. However, she had sent one of the 23rd Precinct's detectives, a new guy named Matt Bluestone, to investigate the claims. But like all good detectives, Matt was highly skeptical especially since he had on scene the fiasco below the Eyrie Building. He had also heard the automatic weapons firing as Elisa did.

According to his report, the power generator story was a cover to avoid public attention on an invasion heist set up by one of Xanatos's rivals to steal some new technology. That was the first thing that sent Elisa on edge.

Xanatos was the owner of a multi-national cooperation which was bigger than she could image, but he was still a private citizen, not a country. Why would his rivals go take this extreme risk to steal from him? There were stealthier, and a lot safer, ways to steal from someone as rich as Xanatos. Why risk exposing yourself and ruin one's good reputation?

The whole thing made Elisa uneasy.

The castle may have been modernized, but being so high up, it lacked the security that the lower floors of the Tower had much to Elisa's relief. She managed to climb up the Tower and the foundation and high wall of the castle without being detected, much to her relief. Her arm muscles were sore from the long climb, but now that she had a good sense of awareness of the security level up here, it would be alright for her to just glide off when it was time to leave.

She rested on stone battlement of the castle's defense wall for a few moments to catch her breath. While she had more stamina and endurance then a human, it had been years since she last climbed non-stop for this long. She wasn't exhausted, but she was feeling the muscles in her biceps protesting for not having stopped for a break once during the climb. She shook the feeling off after a few moments; she had a job to do, and not a whole lot of time to do it.

It may have been the beginning of October, but the summer sun was still lingering on. Meaning the sun would be rising soon.

Elisa stretched out her wings from their "caped" position on her shoulders and allowed herself to glide into what appeared to be the central courtyard of the castle. The yard was littered with still smoking pieces of stone, which no doubt came from the surrounding walls and structures around the space. Careful to avoid any possible burns, Elisa picked up a tiny piece of still smoking debris with only her claws and sniffed it.

The lingering heat and smell upon the stone indicated that it was hit by a low-level laser, fired from either a low to medium-level tech weapon. Elisa encountered those kinds of weapons before on the streets. They were not as deadly to her as the handgun resting in its holster on the center of her lower back was, but they still left lingering burns that could sometimes took two stone sleep session to completely heal. Still, even a low-key laser could have its deadly effects if it hit her enough times, or in a valuable place, so it was smarter to avoid getting hit.

Besides that, the mere smell of a laser upon the rock and the apparent devastation of the courtyard indicated that Xanatos wasn't lying about repealing an invasion. But still, something was off.

Other smells…

Smells she did not have answers too.

Not mention another feeling, a rush of sorts, as if the ground beneath her feet was charged with some kind of power she did not understand.

Elisa shook her head and flicked the debris aside.

Now was not the time for such thoughts or feelings.

As she moved anyway from the courtyard to explore and investigate further, she failed to notice a large lavender figure staring down at her from above in surprise.

* * *

"Must have heck of a heating bill," Elisa murmured, surveying the large room she found herself in. This room she supposed was the Great Hall, the largest space in any Middle-Ages castle.

Typically a Middle-Ages Great Hall would have been used for feasts, entertainment and official functions, the space allowing accommodations to a large number of occupants. However, devoid of large and lengthy tables and benches, this Hall appeared to be used as grand foyer or main room instead of eating area. Indeed, while the Hall seemed to retain most of its original stonework, the old dirt and stone floor was replaced with smooth white and mauve tiles and where candles and torches once hang, a grand chandelier and several electrical lights were placed.

The Hall was combination of Middle-Age and Modern décor, but the only thing in the room that really stood out to Elisa was a class case where an ancient-looking book was stored. Something about it seemed wrong to Elisa, and she found herself keeping a wide distance from it the whole few minutes she took to explore the Hall.

Xanatos really put his money to into this castle. Though, why did it seem that it was converted into a living space was Elisa's guess, but it was not her mission to investigate such things. She was looking for evidence that Matt Bluestone either failed to notice and/or gather during his investigation up here. Bluestone, Chavez, and indeed, Elisa herself, both felt Xanatos was hiding something, but unlike them, Elisa was not as constrained by human laws. Still, whatever she evidence she found, she would have to give it to Chavez and let her figure what to do with it.

It was the only way Elisa kept her good non-official detective and cop standing with the Detective Captain after all. The female gargoyle may be Chavez's former boss's adoptive daughter, but there was only so much Chavez could allow her to do, especially since she was technically outside of human law.

Finding nothing that suggested evidence, Elisa left the Great Hall and entered a darkened area. As a gargoyle, a creature of the night, Elisa could see quite well in the dark, a human would need a flashlight; something that could give them away.

Elisa frowned at the two doorways in front of her: one corridor going straight, the other going off to the right.

From the smells coming from both of them, the one in front of her was filled with the scent of fresh air, while the one of the right did not. In fact, the one of the right had one, two, maybe three scents unknown to her. She never smelled this kind of scent before, yet for whatever reason it did not alarm her as usual unknown smells would.

Indeed, if she thought about it, the smells reminded subtlety of the earth and petrichor; the rains falling on the hot dry Arizona's sands. Yet there was more to it than that: scent of masculinity…of youth…

"Don't tell me this is where Dracula shows up," Elisa said to herself, making up her mind.

To the right it is then.

A loud crash from further down the corridor.

Or maybe not.

Elisa took the corridor leading to the outside. Best to avoid where the possibly on being seen was high. No unknown scents were worth the consequences of getting caught.

* * *

The human, Xanatos, said that they were the last of their kind. Was he lying to them, or did truly not know of any others expect for himself and what remained of his clan? Or were there so few left of their kind out there now that they were on the edge of extinction as Xanatos had implied?

Goliath did not know.

This world was strange…different…so much so then what it had been a thousand years ago.

But if there were others out there, then perhaps that female gargoyle could help them. She could tell them everything they had to know about this new world; especially of its dangers. Maybe even take him to her clan, where he could try to negotiate some form of alliance.

If Xanatos was right, and the gargoyles were nearly extinct then it was best that every gargoyle left should stick closely together.

He would have to be careful on approaching her though.

Though the castle was their home and territory, the surrounding area…this city…was her home and territory. To her, they would be the intruders.

And it's the gargoyles' nature to protect.

It would be best if he was the first to find her. Goliath did not want to think what would happen if the Trio found her first. If confronted, they would most likely but unintentionally agitate her; make her feel trapped and overwhelmed. It would be likely that she would attack them, and knowing that it was not really in the Trio's nature to attack a female, she could severely injure them.

His old friend would be a better choice if the female did happen to stumble upon him, but Goliath had seen intruding gargoyles simply attack older gargoyles without hesitation. Though Goliath did not doubt his old friend's fighting ability, it would make the situation harder if they did come to blows.

And their friend-beast would attack her sight if he smelled hostile intentions on the female. Or if she was non-hostile like Goliath hoped, then he would try to intimidate her into leaving.

As Goliath followed the unknown female's scent, he hoped he would find her first.

Because he was also picking up his friend-beast smell too.

* * *

Can you guess where the crash came from?

Not quite met the gargoyles yet, but next chapter (if Realf Life permits) will be the first meeting! Hope you enjoyed.


End file.
